SYDNEY - An Australian security contractor has been killed in an attack in Iraq, the foreign ministry in Canberra said Thursday.
Two other foreign nationals also died in the small-arms attack on the road to Baghdad international airport around noon on Wednesday, the ministry said.
A ministry spokeswoman said the family of the 34-year-old victim, a former Australian Army member and reservist, had been informed and was being given consular assistance.
The man, who was not named, was discharged from the army in 1999.
The spokeswoman said the consul-general in Baghdad was helping to organise the repatriation of the man's body to Australia.
"Security in Baghdad remains very dangerous, particularly on the road to the airport," she said.
The man from New South Wales state is the fourth Australian known to have been killed in Iraq.
Paul Pardoel, 35, a former Royal Australian Air Force officer who had been serving with the British Royal Air Force since 2002, was one of 10 servicemen killed when a British Hercules C-130 crashed north of Baghdad in January.
Australian journalist Paul Moran and Sydney sound recordist Jeremy Little were killed early in the conflict.
Australia currently has about 450 military personnel in Iraq and is sending 450 more.
04/21/2005 08:00 GMT